Abstract [en]

An investigation into the dissociative recombination process for (HCO+)-C-13 using merged ion-electron beam methods has been performed at the heavy ion storage ring CRYRING, Stockholm, Sweden. We have measured the branching fractions of the different product channels at similar to 0 eV collision energy to be the following: CO + H 87 +/- 2%, OH + C 9 +/- 2%, and O + CH 4 +/- 2%. The formation of electronically excited CO in the dominant reaction channel has also been studied, and we report the following tentative branching fractions for the different CO product electronic states: CO(X (1)Sigma(+)) + H, 54 +/- 10%; CO(a (3)Pi) + H, 23 +/- 4%; and CO(a' (3)Sigma(+)) + H, 23 +/- 4%. The absolute cross section between similar to 2-50 000 meV was measured and showed resonance structures between 3 and 15 eV. The cross section was fitted in the energy range relevant to astrophysics, i.e., between 1 and 300 meV, and was found to follow the expression sigma = 1.3 +/- 0.3 X 10(-16) E-1.29 +/- 0.05 cm(2) and the corresponding thermal rate constant was determined to be k(T) = 2.0 +/- 0.4 X 10(-7)(T/300)(-0.79 +/- 0.05) cm(3) s(-1). Radioastronomical observations with the IRAM 30 m telescope of HCO+ toward the Red Rectangle yielded an upper column density limit of 4 X 10(11) cm(-2) of HCO+ at the 1 sigma level in that object, indicating that previous claims that the dissociative recombination of HCO+ plays an important role in the production of excited CO molecules emitting the observed Cameron bands in that object are not supported.